Fimbulvetr
by Dragon'sHost
Summary: The guild has returned, yet Lucy's issues with Natsu and her team remain. In desperate need of a distraction, she invites Lyon on a job with her. But when the simple fetch quest that they've accepted turns out to be more than they expected, they will have to contend not only with an icy mountain and its resident horrors, but also with its dark past and the coming end of the world.
1. A Prelude To Winter Unending

Cover by Kimbeekitty, and posted with permission.

This was my last year's Nanowrimo project. I'm excited for this one, but I must warn you that this will not be a pleasant story, as this is based around several of my personal nightmares. So if being trapped on a snowbound mountain with monsters at your heels is also your personal nightmare, this might not be the fic for you.

The main characters will enter after this prelude.

Good Luck.

* * *

 **A Prelude To Winter Unending**

* * *

Howling pierced the air, the wind wrapping the sound around the man's ears as his footsteps pounded against the mountain path. It was treacherous to descend at this pace, with easily dislodged stones and the way the route skirted the cliffs, but he had no choice.

 _They_ were behind him, with fangs of winter in their gaping maws. He imagined their frigid breaths on the back of his neck, eyes aglow in the fading light and pointed claws grasping for him; to throw him off the cliff or to rend him apart, it mattered little.

What mattered is that the howls were getting closer.

 _They were catching up._

Sweat beaded on his brow, and his clothes clung to him. It was dangerous to sweat too much in this clime, lest it freeze to skin, but he had little concern for that as warm as it was and so desperate his escape.

This shouldn't have happened. He had made all of the requisite precautions – the key to safe passage hanging from his neck, and resting beneath his clothes over his heart. He should have encountered nothing more than the wind and rock.

The sight of a dark opening in the rock ahead, at the bottom of the path, was a welcome one. His steps slowing to negotiate the final stretch of rocky path, his breaths heavy and fogging in the air, tasting of blood. Reaching his destination and spotting the door nestled in the mountain's side, he leaned against the rock outcropping, and risked a glance back up the path.

His eyes widened at the path he'd just come down.

Frost gleamed on the exposed rocks, and crawled down the mountain towards him, stone cracking and groaning at sudden cooling and the few plants shattering as the water inside their leaves abruptly expanded. Dark gray clouds swarmed on the horizon, swallowing the rich reds and golds of the afternoon light.

A screech – an unearthly thing that belonged to no animal he knew of – sounded from above his position and spurred his sluggish limbs to action. He fumbled with the door's latch, his fingers already aching from the cold engulfing the mountain.

He stumbled into the tunnel, slamming the door shut behind him. Glancing around for something to block the door in the weak light of the wall mounted light lacrimas, his eyes alit upon the stones standing guard, adorned with spears and the skull of some ancient beast painted with symbols as a ward against evil. Fear skittered up his spine as he gazed into the empty sockets, feeling as if it were staring back at him. Not even threat for his life would get him to disturb the pile. It may not have been doing its job properly, but a lifetime of superstition wouldn't allow him the option. Instead, he wrenched one of the light lacrimas from the wall and jammed it under the latch. The crystal almost didn't fit, but to his relief it did.

Following the thin light of the lacrimas and clutching the guide rope mounted to the walls, he stepped carefully across the stone and ice that coated the caverns here year-round. Shivering, he descended into the mountain's bowels, passing many more mounds of stone along the way. These were much smaller, and contained no bones.

A booming echoed through the dark, and the man froze in place, hands gripping the coarse rope tightly. Another rocked deep within the cavern, and another.

Several of the stone mounds fell apart with the shaking, clattering to the ground.

He watched, unable to even cry or whimper, as something shifted in the dark ahead of him, the soft hiss of something sliding across the ice drifting to his ears.

It was then, with cold certainty, that he knew that the mass of ice and stone around him was to be his tomb, and that he'd never see the warm light of day ever again.

This wasn't supposed to happen.

But he'd be damned if he made this easy for them.


	2. Invitations And Distractions

_Cover by Kimbeekitty, and posted with permission._

I decided to post this chapter immediately rather than wait until later in the month like I had initially planned, but I figured no one would mind the rapid update.

Enjoy!

* * *

 **Invitations And Distractions**

* * *

Lyon stared at the rebuilt guild hall of Fairy Tail. A wide smile lit his face at how the guild had once again risen from the ashes of defeat. With the destruction wrought in Tartaros's wake, and after a year of the guild dispersed to all corners of Fiore, he hadn't really believed such miracles as this were even possible anymore. Hell, out of respect for what had happened here, Lamia Scale hadn't even participated in this year's Grand Magic Games. Which was too bad in hindsight, since he'd heard that Natsu had party-crashed them in a rather spectacular way (sadly, most of the footage was damaged beyond recovery, so he couldn't witness the gloriousness for himself. A lost opportunity, that).

He wasn't at Fairy Tail's doors, to reminisce or to marvel at their return, however. Or rather… it wasn't the entire reason. Lyon did fully intent to give the guild his congratulations and well wishes, but there were other congratulations and well wishes that were at the heart of his objective today.

What he had was a stack of papers burning a hole in his jacket that he needed to unload. And he was looking forward to saying hello to everyone he'd missed seeing before (and possibly cajole Wendy into returning to Lamia Scale as Chelia was nigh inconsolable without her).

But first, he had to go inside. Grasping the handle of the door, he opened it and stepped into the main hall.

It wasn't particularly crowded, which was something of a surprise to Lyon. He would have assumed that the place would be packed with still-celebrating mages, even if it had been a week since Fairy Tail's official reinstatement. Also, prior experience had given him the (apparently false) impression that the guild was always full-swing into party mode or the site of a vicious, yet friendly, brawl.

A few curious gazes turned towards him, not the least of which being Wendy. "Lyon!" she greeted him cheerfully, standing up from her table and rapidly making her way towards him. "It's good to see you!"

He smiled back at her bright demeanor. "Hello, Wendy. It's good to see you, too." He approached the teenager and met her halfway. "Chelia sends her regards."

"Tell her I said hi, back!" Wendy said.

"Will do."

Before he could broach one of the subjects of his visit, his attention was called elsewhere by his name being shouted.

"Lyon!" a familiar voice called from the second floor. Lyon looked up just in time to see his former rival and fellow student take the short route down by leaping over the railing and into the main area. When Gray reached Lyon, he clasped his arm and pulled him in for a one-armed hug. "Good to see you, man!" He then stepped back and released his friend's arm. "What brings you all this way to Fairy Tail?"

"Yes, hello Gray," Lyon greeted. "You see, I was…"

"Lyon!"

Lyon almost didn't mind being interrupted again, if it was by this woman. "Juvia. Hello." His heart sang at her visage, a hundred times lovelier than any other. Lyon knew that he needed to let go of the idea of him and Juvia, and had resolved over a full year ago to do just that, but it was a lot harder to do so when she looked as if she'd stepped right out of heaven itself.

Juvia's eyes slid from him to Gray, deeply suspicious, as she sidled on over to her preferred ice mage, her arm intertwining with Gray's. To some disheartenment, Lyon noticed that Gray didn't move to shake her off. "What brings you to Fairy Tail, Lyon…?"

It seemed as if the couple had made some progress after all. It was good news – after all, Lyon did publicly renounce his interest. But for a more selfish part of him… it was a difficult sight to behold.

"It…"

"Lyon!" Red hair appeared above them, its owner leaning on the second floor handrailing. "What a nice surprise! Welcome to Fairy Tail!" The gathering crowd let out a whooping cheer.

Before he could even open his mouth, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Resigned, Lyon twisted to see who it was. Then he smiled upon seeing Lucy grinning back at him.

"Hey there, Lyon!" she greeted him. "So, what brings you all this way?"

"Hello, Lucy." He paused, waiting to be interrupted. When it dragged on for a few moments, Lucy's expression turned questioning. With a light shake of his head, Lyon continued, "I actually came as a messenger of sorts, today—"

"Lyon!" Natsu cried happily, entering the guild hall with his Exceed son in tow. "Hey there, man! Long time no see! How's it hanging?"

"Oh, for goodness' sake," Lyon muttered.

His reaction perplexed Natsu greatly, his expression twisting in his confusion. "Huh? What'd I do?"

"So many things," grumbled Lucy.

Shaking it off, Lyon responded, "It's nothing, Natsu. Good to see you, too."

By this point, Erza had reached them, having descended the stairs like a normal person. "We're happy to see you, Lyon. For what occasion do we owe the pleasure?"

"I have invitations!" Lyon blurted out, seeing his chance at last. "To deliver." He coughed and cleared his throat, his cheeks warming slightly. "For Ren and Sherry's wedding."

Erza raised a scarlet eyebrow. "For Fairy Tail?"

He nodded. "Yes; Sherry and Ren wished to invite their friends along, with everyone that was a part of the Oracion Seis suppression force from years ago. Something along the lines of that job bringing them together, or something, and wanting everyone involved to celebrate with them." Lyon had barely managed to convince Chelia that it would be a better idea if he delivered the invitations. She had only backed down (with minimal complaint) when Lyon had reminded her of her official duties as maid of honor for Sherry. If he'd let her have this job, then no one would have seen Chelia for days, with how badly she already missed Wendy.

With a smile, Erza nodded and held out her hand for her invitation. "I happily accept, both as an individual and as the guild master of Fairy Tail."

Lyon scrambled for the ribbon-bound invitations, relieved to be – well, relieved – of them. But her statement caught him by surprise. "You're the new guild master?"

"Yes." The very firm and curt statement led him to think that asking after Makarov might be a bad decision.

"Congratulations," he told her, instead.

She beamed at him as the invitation was wrestled out of its binding and placed in her gauntleted hand. "Thank you," she told him. Her cheeks were stained red, her gaze focused solely on the invitation now in her possession.

Seeing his confusion over Erza's reaction, Lucy leaned in close to Lyon and whispered into his ear. "Erza really, really likes weddings." She withdrew with a wink and a finger to her lips. "But you didn't hear that from me."

"Alright, then." He shrugged, accepting the knowledge without further dwelling on it. "Here's yours, Lucy."

"Thank you!" she chirped. Upon opening it, she made a strange face at the paper.

Concerned, Lyon asked, "Is there something wrong?"

"Oh, no," Lucy reassured him, closing the invitation and smoothly tucking it away before anyone else could sneak a peek at it. "Sherry just left an extra message for me, is all."

Lyon could well imagine. Sherry was never going to let her defeat at Lucy's hands on Galuna Island go, and he knew Sherry well enough to know that Sherry liked the blonde regardless, but there was bound to be some sort of well-meaning jibe in Lucy's invitation despite that. Or maybe because of it. Sometimes it was difficult to get a good read on Sherry's motivations and reasoning patterns, even with Lyon's vast experience with the woman.

He passed Wendy and Carla their invitations next. "I can't wait to go!" Wendy exclaimed, excitement bubbling out of her.

Even Carla seemed infected by her friend's mood, a rare heartfelt smile upon her humanoid face. "We'll have to go dress shopping to find something appropriate."

The Exceed's words seemed to light a fire inside of Erza. "Indeed. We should all go shopping together, don't you think?"

"Oh boy," Lucy intoned. "This is going to be an experience."

Lyon wasn't sure he wanted to know what it would entail, given the way that Lucy said it.

Gray grinned as he accepted his. "Be sure to tell them congratulations for me, alright?"

"Yeah, same here!" Natsu joined in. "From me and Happy, too."

"Aye!"

Finally, Lyon was left with only four more invitations in his possession. "And the last ones are for Laxus, Freed, Bickslow, and Evergreen. Are they around?" A quick glance around the guild did not reveal them to Lyon.

"They're on a job," Erza explained. "But they should be back in a few days. I'll hold onto their invitations for them."

"That's right," Gray remarked, a lightbulb going off in his head. "I forgot, they were a part of Ren's guild the past year."

"Yup. They made surprisingly good hosts, too," Lucy recalled with fondness. "Jason and I did an article or two about it."

"I can't imagine Laxus as a host," Natsu said, shuddering. "It's just… a really weird mental picture."

"Laxus took the longest to acclimate," Lucy recalled. "But he was pretty popular, if I remember correctly."

Probably _because_ of his general aura of grumpiness, Lyon suspected. "Extremely popular, from what I hear from Sherry."

"So now that that's over, how long are you sticking around for, Lyon?" Gray asked, having discarded his shirt at some point during the conversation. Juvia released Gray's arm and began to gather his fallen clothing. She pressed them back into her beloved's arms with a fond smile.

"Not long if you can't remain dressed," Lyon teased, trying to take his mind off of the show of domestic familiarity.

Novelty worn off, the crowd gathered around Lyon had largely dispersed by this point. Natsu had wandered off, and Erza had vanished to her office, but Wendy still hovered nearby, probably to have him deliver a message of some sort to Chelia. Though Lyon knew very well that the two communicated on a near daily basis anyway with their new matching lacrima phones.

"Gray!" Juvia stated excitedly, already looking through the man's invitation. "It says you can bring a plus one! Oh, to be my darling Gray's plus one at a wedding! It'll be so romantic, don't you think, dear?" Her gaze misted over, her thoughts far away from her present location. "Sipping champagne, slow dancing, cutting the cake, Juvia catching the bouquet, and then Gray catching the garter! It'll be perfect fate, proof that Juvia and Gray were meant to be together forever…!"

Gray sighed heavily. "What makes you think I'm inviting you?" he questioned, though his tone lacked any real bite in it, and a half smile played at his lips.

Juvia crashed back to reality with moisture brimming in her eyes, and she pouted (cutely, like everything she did) at his words. "Gray!"

"I'm kidding," he told her. "Sure, you can come if you want."

"Hooray! We'll have to go shopping as soon as possible! We must match, after all!"

That was all it took for Erza to reappear. "Juvia! You must come shopping with me, posthaste."

This started a small, benign squabble between the pair of women as Juvia complained of Erza purposefully stealing away her precious bonding time with Gray, while Gray watched from the sidelines looking tired.

Lyon would have given the world to be standing in his shoes right then. To be the center of Juvia's world.

A light tap on his shoulder drew his attention away from the trio he was watching, and he looked into the saddened brown eyes of Lucy Heartfilia. Her lips were quirked in the sort of self-deprecating smile that Lyon was intimately familiar with seeing in his mirror.

He smiled tiredly back at her, unspoken understanding in the silent exchange. Lucy and he had become better acquainted over the intervening year, thanks in large part to her being Jason's assistant. Although he wasn't as close to her as say… Natsu was, Lyon still felt he was safe in calling her his friend.

After a few moments of silence, Lyon awkwardly stated, "So. Erza is your guild master now? That's an… That's an interesting choice."

Lucy let out a strained laugh, vivid memories of Erza stabbing the paperwork stacks on her desk rushing to the forefront of her mind. That the paperwork in question was specifically regarding Erza's instatement as guild master did not bode well for the guild's future, honestly. It seemed as if the long-standing tradition of being a pain in the Magic Council's side would continue on unabated through Fairy Tail's latest leader. "Yeah. She's… she's definitely an interesting guild master."

Silence fell between them again.

"I bet Sherry and Ren are going to have a beautiful wedding," she told him, changing the topic and trying to take his mind off of Juvia and Gray. "Please let them know that if they need anything at all, I would be more than happy to help out."

Lyon nodded. "I'll tell them. I'm sure that they'll appreciate the offer." He paused for a moment, and then added, "Not that they'll… say exactly that, but I'm sure they'll be quite happy." The chances were high that Sherry would affectionately call Lucy a nosy trollop, and Ren would pretend to be offended, and then immediately turn around and say something coy about the situation. By this point, Lyon had spent so much time around the both of them that he had them pretty much pegged.

"Figuring out what they mean to say is a chore and a half sometimes," Lucy wryly observed, recalling keenly one article in particular that she had to help write regarding the pair's extended engagement.

"It gets easier with time," Lyon reassured her.

"Does it?" Her eyes were full of doubt. " _Does_ it?"

"…Somewhat," he amended.

"Tell her that I'll be happy to attend," Lucy said. "I'm really excited that she even wanted to invite me, if I'm being honest."

"She likes you a lot more than she says she does," Lyon admitted.

"Oooh," Lucy teased, pushing Lyon's shoulder slightly. "Careful. Spilling your friend's secrets there."

"I'm not especially worried." Lyon shrugged. "The worst she'll do is pull the rug out from under me again."

Sweat ran down Lucy's neck. "Glad to know that I'm not the only one she does that to."

Juvia's laugh rang out across the guild.

Both Lyon and Lucy looked over to the source of the noise. Opposite of them, Gray and Juvia were all smirk and smile, their arms intertwined. Natsu, in his curiosity, wandered over to the water and ice duo. Whatever he then asked them only made them laugh all the harder, and irritated the dragon slayer.

Then an evil grin spread across Natsu's face, and he leaned in closer to them, whispering something. Happy joined in, a smirk of his own on his fuzzy blue face. Whatever it was he said resulting in Gray decking him, sending the pink haired man flying into a table.

The familiar sight of Gray and Natsu trying to pummel the daylights out of each other, with Juvia cheering on her beloved from the sidelines, caused an intense wave of pain-filled nostalgia to well up inside of Lucy. She shook her head sadly at the scene. She'd missed her team greatly over the past year. But she no longer knew how to interact with them. Both of the boys had done a lot of growing out of her sight, and so had Wendy. Erza was guild master now, with all of the obligations and responsibility that came with that. Their team would never be quite the same again. Lucy felt that in her very soul. Another loss for her to mourn.

As the fight heated up and began to involve more people, she gently nudged Lyon. Once she had his attention, she jerked her head in the direction of the job board. "Unless you want to be a part of this brawl, we should move out of the way…"

Lyon nodded, not feeling up to joining in this time. The closeness between Juvia and Gray was a good thing, he kept telling himself. And yet… it was as if his heart hadn't quite gotten that particular message. Feelings couldn't be rationalized away, Lyon knew. No matter how much logic he threw at it, what he felt was involuntary, and therefore genuine.

His countenance was so horribly downcast, that Lucy couldn't help but take notice of it. It didn't take a genius to figure out what it was about, either. She knew him, and how hard feelings were to change. Her heart went out to the man, to her friend.

She looked away from him, feeling keenly as if she were intruding. Her eyes rested on the board they stood beside. Inspiration suddenly hit her, and she fully faced the board. Scanning over the job flyers, her eyes rapidly swept the board. Normally she'd ask Nab for a recommendation, but today she was on her own seeing as how the man had been pulled into the rapidly escalating fight. It didn't help that, following the rapid spread of news about Fairy Tail's reinstatement, they'd been drowned in new job offers. Lucy could recall a couple of days where Erza's shouts of frustration at all of the paperwork rang across the guild, and resulted in noise complaints from the neighboring businesses (which was saying something, as the fighting could get pretty loud and yet no one ever had complained about _that._ Or, at least… not to Lucy's knowledge, they hadn't). Lyon hadn't been too far off in his remark about Erza being an odd choice for guild master. She was really much better at slicing things than writing reports about the topic. But then, neither Gildarts nor Laxus had been present, and Mirajane had expressed zero interest in the job herself, so they were left with Erza, as it were.

When a posting finally caught her interest, it was one that was almost completely obscured by another flyer. Lifting the corner of the obfuscating paper, she quickly scanned over the summary of the job. It wasn't anything particularly amazing, so far as mage jobs went. It appeared to be a simple fetch quest. The reward was pretty high though, so maybe the terrain was dangerous or it was in a hard to reach place? Most interestingly, it was on a snowy mountain, and called specifically for a celestial mage! Written in tiny lettering beneath the main reward, Lucy spotted an additional reward posted – gate keys.

That decided it for her. She took it down from the board, holding it in her hands. The picture of the mountain drawn on the flyer reminded her of another mountain, Mt. Hakobe, and her and Natsu's rescue of Macao. Her first adventure as an official member of Fairy Tail, if not her first actual job.

She'd gone to snow-covered mountains on several jobs since then, with her full team and just with Natsu and Happy. But that first trip would always hold a special place in her heart.

Lucy steeled herself, and then turned back to Lyon, who was watching the scuffle with the same horrified fascination that one might wear while watching a mud mole perform a mating dance. Poor guy wasn't acclimated to it yet. Lucy understood fully. Eventually it would become a simple background irritant, much like swatting a buzzing fly. Clearing her throat, Lucy waited a moment for Lyon to peel his eyes away from the spectacle and focus on her. Once she had his attention, she presented the flyer to him.

Lyon took it from her and looked over it curiously. "A job flyer?" He looked up at her, confusion swimming in his eyes. "What's this for?"

"Want to go on that job with me?" Lucy blurted, her skin aflush with embarrassment. She wasn't sure why the simple act of asking a friend to join her on a potentially dangerous quest was so… uncomfortable.

He stared at her blankly. "You want to…"

"Double up on a job, yeah. Look it's…" Lucy pointed somewhat helplessly at the flyer. "It calls for a celestial mage, and it's on a snowy mountain. I figure… an ice mage would be really, really good to have along."

"Then why don't you ask Gray?" Perplexed, Lyon threw a quick glance over in the direction of his foster brother and Juvia, unable to help his resulting slight grimace.

"Because I'm asking you, Lyon." Lucy pursed her lips. "Look… I'm… I don't think I'm ready to… No." She sighed, and started again. "I don't want to go on a job alone. It'll be my first one since Fairy Tail split up last year." She hadn't really had the time to yet, what with rebuilding the guild hall over the past week. "But I don't feel ready yet to deal with… my team. Especially not without Erza there to keep Gray and Natsu from splitting the mountain in half." Actually, mountain splitting was more of an Erza move, but that wasn't the main point. "And besides… I couldn't help but notice that you're in some need of a distraction too."

Lyon wanted to deny her observation about him, but she had hit the nail on the head.

"Look, I'll be more than happy to split the money reward with you," she offered. "So what do you think?" Extending her hand to him, she gave him a tremulous smile. "Partners for one job?"

If anyone else from Fairy Tail had offered to go on a job with him, Lyon would have side-eyed the hell out of them. Except maybe Juvia. If Gray had offered, it would have been definite cause for suspicion. Regardless, although job sharing was common for mages in the same guild, it was almost unheard of for mages from competing guilds to team up. In fact, the only instance Lyon could recall clearly was when they joined up to tackle the Oracion Seis. (And that hadn't actually been officially sanctioned.)

But this was _Lucy_ offering it to him. Lyon may not have known her as well as her guildmates, but he thought he knew enough about her to say that her intentions were good, and that they got along well in a professional setting like this job would be.

A final, forlorn glance at Juvia, and then back at the flyer, was enough to decide the matter for him.

He extended his own hand, and clasped it in hers. "I'd be happy to take you up on that. A job to a remote, snow-bound mountain sounds pretty great right now, to tell the truth."

Lucy grinned at him, and they let go of each other's hand. "Yeah, same here."

"So… how do we even go about getting approved for a two-guild job?" Lyon asked, peering more closely at the job flyer.

"No worries. I actually helped write an article about the 'growing trend' of multiple guild jobs," Lucy said, making air quotes. "Basically, both guild masters approve, one sends notification to the client to expect the both of us, the guilds split the brokerage fee, and the rest gets divvyed up according to whatever agreement we work out between the two of us. Though that's only if the job was offered at both guilds. If it's just one, then the entire fee goes to the hosting guild, which then sends the other guild its portion, instead of the client doing it. Basically, it's real estate. But, you know. With magic. And usually explosions of some sort."

"I think that last part's unique to Fairy Tail," Lyon observed with a wry smile.

Lucy considered it for a moment. "Yeah, you might be right about that."

"So who got the reward for Oracion Seis's defeat then?" pondered Lyon. "I certainly didn't see a single jewel."

Lucy grimaced. "Well, since it technically wasn't sanctioned by the Council, and therefore not a real job… our reward was not going to prison."

Accepting that logic, Lyon decided to change the subject. "Well if we're going to do this, then we should find your guild master before…"

"Before she goes on a hunt for the perfect wedding dress, I agree," Lucy finished. "On that note, we should also mention to her that it's not her wedding so a white bridal gown is a poor choice."

That garnered a laugh from Lyon, but his mirth abruptly cut off at the serious expression on Lucy's face and the slight shaking of her head. "Wait. She wouldn't really do that, would she?"

"Not if we stop her first. Come on, let's go."


	3. Making Arrangements

_Cover by Kimbeekitty, and posted with permission._

I was going to post this earlier this week, but I came down with a pretty terrible case of the flu. Updates will generally happen around the 23rd of each month barring anything major going down in my personal life.

Regardless, I'm pretty excited to get this fic under way!

 **Name notes:**

 _Scilla_ \- a genus of very pretty plants with a wide range of habitat, including subalpine regions; I named the village that to keep with Fairy Tail's trend of naming places after various flowers

 _Larkspur_ \- a species of flower, also known as Delphinium; named to keep with the flower names trend for locations

 _ísfjall_ \- "ice mountain" in Icelandic, which is why Lucy gets confused about the lack of the word "mountain" in front of it as she doesn't speak the language it's actually in (I have probably butchered the grammar here, if anyone knows for sure please feel free to message me).

* * *

 **Making Arrangements**

* * *

The guild master was already up in her new office, perusing one of several glossy bridal catalogues that were spread out across her desk, having wasted no time in getting started on her dress hunt. She looked up when she heard knocking on the open door. "Lucy," Erza greeted as she set down the magazine she'd been looking at. Her eyebrows then raised significantly upon seeing the ice mage in Lucy's wake. "And Lyon. Did you two need something from me?"

Lucy strode over to her with confidence in her step and held out the job request, which Lyon had returned to her earlier. "Lyon and I want to team up on this job."

Erza glanced back and forth between the pair several times before looking around her office, peering into the corners with suspicion written across her features.

"No, you're not being pranked again, Erza," Lucy reassured her. "Besides, it was Happy that pulled that one, not me. I don't do pranks."

"Oh," Erza replied, finally settling and looking over the flyer. "This _is_ pretty unusual, however. You don't normally take jobs outside of your team, Lucy. And I didn't think that you two knew each other well enough for something like a joint job. I mean… for being from different guilds."

"We're friends," Lucy stated, a note of finality in her voice to discourage Erza from prying further.

The redhead shrugged. "I have no objections, then. I'll call up your guild master and run it by her, Lyon. But I don't think she'll have any problem with your taking this job, either. I'll be sure to let the client know to expect the pair of you."

She sounded remarkably like a competent guild master just then. Lucy could feel her heart swelling with pride at Erza's growth over the past week. If she kept this up, she might just make a great guild master, yet. Provided the paperwork didn't kill her, that is.

Erza regarded the request a moment further, recognition suddenly brightening in her eyes. "I just had Mirajane post this on the board today, actually. I'm sure the client will be happy at such a fast turnaround." Reaching into her desk, she withdrew a stamp and pressed it into the paper. Handing it back, she smiled at them. "Anything else?"

"Yeah," Lyon answered, surprising Lucy. "Can you tell the client that we'll need three or four days to get there? We need to see about supplies, transport, acclimation… that sort of thing."

Erza nodded in acquiescence. "I can do that."

Feeling this was a good time, Lucy added, "Can you maybe also not… tell the rest of my team where I'm going? Or that I'm going anywhere period?"

Erza fixed her with a hard stare, her brown eyes boring into her teammate and her voice flat. "Lucy."

"Don't," the blonde warned, her finger pointed at her friend. "You remember when I tried to take a small solo job when I first joined Fairy Tail? And all of you crashed it and destroyed everything?"

Erza looked offended at the accusation. "I did not crash any job of yours!"

"You're right," Lucy replied, her face souring further. "The _dynamic duo_ did. Which is why they're not allowed to know where I'm going."

Lyon wondered if he should just… give them some private space in order to hash this out. He was not really great with confrontation, and it felt as if one was brewing in the air, like a storm.

Heaving a sigh, Erza relented much more quickly than Lucy had anticipated. "Fine. If they ask, I'm going to tell them that you're on a job. I will not deceive them. But I won't volunteer the information. If Natsu comes sniffing after you, however, there's nothing I can do about it. Will that satisfy you?"

"I will accept that," conceded Lucy, snatching up the approved flyer. "I'll just have to make the trail difficult to follow."

That Lucy had a contingency plan for this worried Lyon a bit.

"I still don't like it, though, Lucy," Erza added, as her teammate walked away. It was strange to see the redhead look as squeamish as she did in that moment, out of harmony with the confident and strong image she projected – made all the more powerful by the mantle of a guild master. "Friends shouldn't keep secrets," she said softly. "I… you all taught me that."

Lucy paused at the door. Her grip tightened on the doorknob, and she let out a sigh, her shoulders slumping. "I know, Erza. I just need some… space from them for a bit. Nothing major, I promise."

Her friend nodded firmly in response. "Good, then. I will make sure they behave in your absence."

That drew a snigger from Lucy. "If anyone can, it's you, Erza." She began to step out, but then halted in her tracks, forcing Lyon to pause at the threshold once more lest he collide with her. "Oh, I almost forgot. Erza? White bridal dresses on the guests would be in poor taste."

A flush crept into Erza's cheeks and she hurriedly stuffed the magazines she'd been looking at into a desk drawer. "I know that! But I can daydream, can't I? Now go!"

Lucy grinned and practically fled the office, a grateful Lyon in her wake. Once they were standing outside the office, Lucy motioned for Lyon to follow her. He did so, close on her heels as she led him down the stairs, and past the crowd of mages towards the exit. Although mildly surprised that they weren't going to rejoin the guild proper, it was overshadowed in his gladness that the awkward conversation between her and Erza was over.

Once they were safely outside the guild doors, Lucy turned to face him. "So how do we want to go about this, exactly?" she inquired. "You told Erza three days to prepare, so I assume you already have a plan in mind?"

"Yes. That's not going to be a problem, is it? I'm not overstepping?" Lyon wanted to be certain. Although Lucy was a friend, he didn't yet know where precisely the boundaries lay in their relationship, professional or personal. Though he assumed that this job would reveal them to him in short order. Being thrown into incredibly stressful situations with near strangers had that effect, or so he had discovered over the years.

Lucy shook her head at him. "No, that's fine! I like plans." And it was a refreshing change from her team's general policy regarding plans – which was to ignore them entirely.

Relieved, Lyon suggested, "How about we meet up tomorrow and discuss everything? I'm afraid that I need to go back to my guild for the day, but maybe we could get everything hashed out over coffee?"

"Sure thing. Sounds great," Lucy agreed readily. "Where at, and what time works for you?"

"I don't actually know of any good places," Lyon admitted. He wasn't really the café sort of person. "Do you know of any good ones?"

She brightened. "Yeah, there's a nice café here in Magnolia, if that works for you? I can give you the address."

"Then let's say… two in the afternoon?"

Nodding, she stuck her hand out in front of her. "I think that can be arranged."

With a smile, he shook her hand, her warm palm comfortable in his grip, and just as calloused as his own.

The job seemed to be off to a good start already.

* * *

Lucy found herself sitting down at a quaint coffee shop in the district near her home, well in advance of the allotted meetup time. It was a quiet little place that she'd found one day after Fairy Tail disbanded, when she'd been wandering the streets out of boredom. The food they served there was excellent, and the coffee was exquisite. As she also liked the owners, a friendly elderly couple, Lucy had even managed to get a small article about the place published, since interest pieces like that were always welcome in _Sorcerer Weekly_.

As a result, the business had exploded, and there were rumors of a second shop possibly being opened sometime in the near future. Lucy was extremely happy for them; they deserved all the attention they could get.

Once she was seated, with a great deal of ecstatic hugging from Rebecca and Hayley, the owners, Lucy opened up her menu to order. She was surprised when, a few minutes later, someone slid into her booth opposite her. Lowering the menu, she relaxed at seeing that it was Lyon.

"You're early," she told him.

He shrugged. "As soon as you mentioned the name of this place yesterday, I remembered that article you wrote about it a few months ago. Since you said the food was good, I thought I would get here early to try it out. Should have known that you would have done the same. After all, it _was_ your article."

Lucy raised her menu back up in order to hide her slowly spreading smile. "So you read my little article, and even remembered it?" For some reason, the notion tickled her pink. Even after hearing that most of the other guild members had followed her short-lived journalism career, it was something else to hear that someone from a completely different guild had as well.

The tips of Lyon's ears turned pink, and he coughed. "Well… yeah. You're my friend. And Wendy is your friend, too. Even if I hadn't already read it she would have explained it to me in detail later." He paused, and with a wry quirk of his lips, he added, "And she did so anyway, despite my assurances that I had, indeed, already seen it."

The waitress returned then, and asked if they were ready to order. Once their orders were taken, the waitress collected the menus and disappeared.

Lucy withdrew the job flyer from her bag and laid it out on the table between them, along with a small notebook and a pen. "Since we're both here, we may as well get this worked out while we wait for our food and drinks."

"Sounds good to me," Lyon replied.

"First let's decide on how to divide the reward," Lucy suggested, tapping that section of the flyer with her pen. "No sense in getting through the rest if we can't agree on this." At his answering nod, she continued. "I want the keys more than I want the money. But the keys are going to be silver, since all of the gold keys presently have owners. Unfortunately, they range a great deal in price and this makes no mention of how many keys or which ones, so we're going to have to make a guess as to how much they might be worth."

Lyon had no knowledge of the current market for celestial spirit keys. Or the market for them at any point in time. He had no use for them himself, and they were so rarely offered as rewards that he'd never had to figure out an exchange rate before. In fact, now that he thought about it, the only celestial spirit mages he knew of were Lucy herself, and Yukino from Sabertooth. Which made sense that the job was offered at Fairy Tail, since Lucy was a well-known member and known to be a celestial mage thanks to the Grand Magic Games the year before. Which meant that the client was fully expecting _Lucy_ to be the one to answer the request. Or Yukino, if the job had been offered at Sabertooth as well.

He wasn't quite sure why, but something about that raised little alarms in the back of his mind.

Which he shook off as leftover paranoia from everything that happened the prior year with Tartaros and the dragons. It made logical sense to offer a job that requires a specific type of mage at a guild where that type of mage was known to work.

…But then again, it was by all appearances… _a fetch job_. What sort of fetch job required a celestial mage specifically to scale a snowy mountain?

No. It was just paranoia. The client had celestial spirit keys, and if they weren't a celestial spirit mage themselves it would make sense that they'd want to efficiently divest themselves of useless items. They were also probably just a fan and wanted to use this as an excuse to meet Lucy in person. Happened all the time with the more popular mages. Lyon had even been on a few jobs like that before. Though clients like that usually did not pay with so many zeroes. Then again, rich fans existed as well, he supposed.

"I really don't know what any celestial keys are worth," he finally told her, suddenly aware that he'd been weirdly quiet for an extended period of time, and Lucy was staring at him awkwardly. "But what about splitting the Jewels… seventy-thirty?"

Lucy considered it. "Hmm… sixty-forty? Unless there's a _pile_ of keys, they're not going to be worth _that_ much." It was truly an impressive number of zeroes.

Lyon agreed. "That sounds good to me, but if there is a pile, we'll switch back to seventy-thirty."

"Okay." Lucy accepted his response easily. This day and age, no one had a pile of celestial keys. There was just simply no point in stockpiling them if one wasn't a celestial mage. Too bad, though. Lucy would have liked to have seen such a thing. Unfortunately, her own collection was the largest she knew of, and it was hers, so it didn't really count.

"So… the job," Lyon redirected, now that the monetary issue was settled. "We're supposed to check in with the client at… Scilla Village." He frowned, staring closer at the job request. "I can't say that I've ever heard of it, actually."

"Neither had I, so I looked it up last night. With a little help from Crux, one of my celestial spirits." Lucy took a map out of her bag, and spread it out onto top of the job request. She pointed to a mountain to the northeast of Mt. Hakobe. "It's over here, on the same mountain the job request is for – ísfjall." She peered a little closer at the text. "Huh, I'm not seeing the word 'mountain' or 'mt.' anywhere."

Lyon looked at the mountain that Lucy's finger almost completely obscured. "Do you have a more localized map? It will be kind of hard to locate the village based on this."

Color spread through Lucy's cheeks. "Yeah, I do." She rolled up the first map, and then brought out a second. "Here it is. But here's where the problem in getting there lies." Lucy tapped the line leading to the village. "As far as I can tell, there's no train directly there. So we'd have to get off at the nearest stop and see what we can arrange from there."

"And that would be…" Lyon muttered, following the tracks with his own finger. "…Here. Larkspur." He thought about it for a long moment, and then asked, "Do you have a terrain map, by any chance?"

"Of course!" When Lucy immediately produced the map, Lyon shot a glance at her bag. How were all of these able to fit in there…?

"I should mention," Lucy said, looking sheepish, "that we need to be a little careful with these – I borrowed them from the Fairy Tail archive reference room and I'll need to return them after this."

"Fairy Tail has a personal archive?" Lyon questioned.

Lucy stared back at him blankly. "Yes? Is that… is that not normal?"

"Not really," Lyon stated. "I think that's pretty unusual for a guild." Even more unusual was the fact that the maps clearly bore the stamp of Magnolia's public library in the lower right corner, but Lyon decided not to call attention to it. "Okay, so looking at the topographical map… looks like the mountain doesn't have as high of an elevation as I feared it might. It tops out at three thousand eight hundred meters or thereabouts."

Lucy raised an eyebrow at him. "That's really high, though."

He made a noncommittal noise. "The chances are that the item we are supposed to be retrieving will be well below the alpine level and we won't need to hike all the way to the summit. Since most of the region is subalpine, and since it's already August, we probably won't encounter much snow at all. Though it'll still be really cold." He looked up at her, with a smirk. "For you, anyway."

Rolling her eyes at him, Lucy muttered, "Haha, very funny Mr. Ice Mage Extraordinaire."

"But since it's still a pretty high altitude for the village," Lyon continued, pointing at Larkspur on the map, "we should stay overnight in the town to acclimate ourselves, and then spend a night in the village itself, and possibly a night on the trail up to the village if the terrain is too difficult. It's best to be cautious, here. Altitude sickness is horrible."

"Even for an ice mage?" Lucy teased, drawing a smile out of Lyon.

"Unfortunately, my magic only makes me immune to the cold," he confessed. "Not to the lack of oxygen."

Lucy giggled in response. "Okay, that makes sense. So that's why you told Erza that it would take us a few days."

He nodded. "Yeah, since it'll take at least two days of travel, and today to get everything we need in order. Speaking of which, do you have any mountain climbing gear?"

Lucy shook her head. "No; I do have the right kind of clothes, but I don't have a pack that'll work nor any rock climbing gear. Or any poles if we do encounter snow. I can pick those up once we're done here, though." Thankfully, she had the reserve income to cover the expenses. Having a stable job for a year had done wonders for her finances. And given the amount of Jewels she stood to gain once the job was done, it would be well worth the cost.

Lyon's eyebrows shot up. "Do you know specifically what you're looking for? If not, I can help out."

"No thanks," Lucy told him. "I may not look it, but I've been on an excursion like this once before, when I was much younger. My father's business friends liked to see what mountains they could conquer along with the business market. It's pretty much a rich man's sport, from what I can remember."

She wasn't wrong. Lyon had heard of mages and locals being hired to cart rich folks up and down mountains like they owned the place. They would make exceptional nuisances of themselves, and generally ruin the experience for any genuine enthusiasts. It was something of a revelation that Lucy had once numbered amongst them, however.

Spotting the food being brought out, Lucy gathered up the maps and tucked them away again. After everything had been set down, and Lucy had thanked the waitress, she continued to talk about the job's particulars. "I'll have my gear all ready to go by tonight. How about you?"

"Definitely," Lyon reassured her. "I go on these types of jobs pretty often, as an ice mage. So I already have all the gear I need. About what we're searching for, though…" He rapped his knuckles against the flyer. "This doesn't mention what it is at all, does it?"

"Unfortunately, it doesn't," confirmed Lucy. "When I tried to pry more information out of Erza yesterday about it, all she could tell me was that the client would have the specifics. Including where on the mountain we should be looking."

Sighing, Lyon picked up his utensils. "I don't like going into it without more details, but this will have to do. And we may as well eat before any of this gets cold."

Agreeing wholeheartedly, Lucy promptly dug into her own meal – relishing every bite.


	4. A Confrontation

_Cover by Kimbeekitty, and posted with permission._

I forgot to post this yesterday, whoops.

* * *

 **A** **Confrontation**

* * *

Together, they left the modest cafe, pleased with both the excellent food and the tentative plan they had hashed out together.

"Wait," Lucy said, stopping suddenly in her tracks outside the café and nearly causing Lyon to run into her. She slapped her forehead with an open palm in clear self-reproach. "I forgot to ask… are we going to meet up in Larkspur, or at the client's, or…"

"Lucy!" a voice called out, interrupting the woman mid-sentence. Its owner rounded the corner, his face split with a huge, excited grin. "I've been looking for you everywhere!"

The blonde winced involuntarily in response – a reaction that Lyon took note of. "Natsu," Lucy said, turning to face her rapidly approaching pink-haired friend. With everything that had been going on, Lucy had not yet really sat down with Natsu for a frank talk about where their partnership still stood. There _had_ already been a small confrontation between them on the topic, but… it had never really gone anywhere. They'd gotten caught up in the idea of reforming the guild, and then the incident with Avatar went down… it had been a lot, with not much time for figuring things out.

It was at least a little bit her own fault too, she knew. She'd been avoiding it in part because she knew that it would be unpleasant. But it seemed like she was about to be forced into dealing with it sooner rather than later, and the prospect made her gut churn.

Slowing down from his full-barrel charge down the street towards Lucy, Natsu skidded to a stop in front of her, Happy in hot pursuit. "Oh, and Lyon, too!" Natsu greeted the ice mage. "How's it going? Haven't seen you in forever!"

Lyon peered at the fire dragon slayer curiously. Hadn't he seen Natsu just the day before? "…Yeah," he responded carefully, unsure if he should point that fact out at all. He was beginning to notice a trend emerging in his dealings with Fairy Tail.

"You just saw him yesterday, Natsu," Happy reminded him before Lyon could make up his mind on the issue.

"Really?" Natsu questioned, his face scrunching up in thought. "Huh. Still in town to catch up with Gray or something?" And then, before Lyon could formulate a response, Natsu shrugged off his own question. "Anyway… Lucy!" Natsu addressed his friend, excitement pouring off of him. "Happy and I found an awesome job for the three of us! If you're done talking to Lyon, let's get going!"

"Aye!" Happy agreed, flipping in the air. "It'll be just like old times!"

Guilt lanced through Lucy's heart. How did they even get a job approved for the three of them? Erza knew that Lucy and Lyon were already slated to work on something, so she wouldn't have stamped it… _Mirajane_. They must have gone to Mirajane in order to get it approved, and the barmaid hadn't known any better, Lucy concluded. "Natsu, Happy, I…"

"Yeah, just like old times!" Natsu agreed. "So you ready or not? We can swing by your apartment if you need to bring anything along."

Lucy sighed heavily. "Listen, Natsu… I've already accepted another job."

"Oh," Natsu said, his apparent enthusiasm hardly dented by her statement. "No problem, we'll go on yours first, then."

Uncomfortable, Lucy shifted in place. "Actually… I wasn't planning on…" She hesitated, unsure how to go about saying it without hurting his feelings deeply. "Look, Natsu. You can't come with me on this job."

He looked confused by this, his face scrunching up slightly and the light starting to dim in his eyes. "What are you talking about? Teammates always go on jobs together, you don't get to do solo stuff when you're in a team. Don't you remember that? From when you first got here?"

Anger arose in Lucy at Natsu's words, bubbling in her veins and rising like the tide. "What do you call leaving for a year to train and only leaving a note for me to find? What do you call that, then, Natsu? Because _that's_ not the sort of thing that teammates do, either!"

Lyon flinched, wanting to be anywhere other than where he was right at that moment. Being in the center of someone else's spat was really not his thing. Sherry thrived on the drama, but Lyon did not agree with her about its entertainment value. He couldn't really leave, though. He and Lucy still needed to figure out where they were meeting up the next day, after all.

Natsu looked taken aback by Lucy's sudden and strong negative response to him. "That's not the same thing at all—"

"No, it's worse," Lucy hissed at him, all of her repressed feelings of hurt rising to the surface, and her brain unable to halt the flow of anger-laced words pouring from her mouth. "Everyone else leaving is one thing. But I'm… I _was_ your _partner_ , Natsu. I deserved the basic courtesy of a face-to-face goodbye."

He scratched his head, beyond confused, and didn't respond. Lucy had caught him off guard, and he reeled from the force of the heavy blow her words dealt.

"I thought you guys already made up over this, Lucy," Happy interjected sadly, also perplexed by what was going on.

Lucy shook her head at the blue cat. "No, we didn't, Happy. We pushed it off in order to remake the guild. And then it got pushed off again with everything that happened with Avatar, and then with the guild all coming back together."

"I don't understand why you're still upset about it," Natsu grumbled. "Didn't we already fix it _by_ bringing the guild back together?"

Lucy looked at her feet, and inhaled deeply. "No," she said. It was quiet, but her voice was strong. Then when she looked up, Lyon saw that her eyes were brimming with unshed tears. "No."

"Then what do you want me to do about it, Lucy?!" Natsu snapped, annoyed. To his mind, everything had been solved by everyone getting back together. That had been the problem, and he had taken steps to fix it already. What was Lucy's deal? Why was she still holding onto this? It didn't make any kind of sense to him.

"I wanted you to _apologize_."

Natsu froze at the confession. "That's it?" That was an easy fix. "Fine – then I apologize." There. Now everything was better, and they could get back to being partners again.

Instead of the satisfaction he anticipated, Lucy deflated at his response, looking even more hurt than she had before. "Do you even know what you're apologizing _for_ , Natsu?" Lucy shook her head and held up her hand to forestall any protest on his part. "Just… save it, Natsu. Please." Then she wiped her eyes with her arm, and straightened her spine. Looking straight into Natsu's eyes, she continued, "I have to finish getting ready to go on this job I took. With Lyon. And no, I won't cancel it to deal with…" She gestured vaguely between them. "With this. We've already sent notification ahead to the client that it's Lyon and me. Alone. I mean… just the two of us," she hastily amended with a quick, apologetic glance to the ice mage. "When I get back… we can talk. But not right now. I can't… do this with you right now."

Lucy sounded exhausted to Lyon, and he touched her shoulder. "Lucy, if you want to talk to Natsu, I'm fine with picking up the rest of your gear for you. This seems pretty important." His offer had nothing to do with wanting to flee the uncomfortable atmosphere, or so he told himself.

The celestial mage glanced back at Lyon and thought about it for a moment. But then she shook her head. "No, I think Natsu and I both need a little time and… space. To clear our heads, you know?" Lucy turned back to Natsu. "Natsu… I don't know how long this job is going to take, precisely. But I should be back in a week or two. When I do… we'll talk. I promise."

Natsu knew how much a promise meant to her, even if everything in him was rebelling against accepting the offer. After waging a brief internal war, he sagged, and replied, "Alright. We'll talk when you get back."

She smiled at him, then. Honestly, she hadn't expected him to back down so easily from this. Maybe Natsu really had matured over the past year. "Thank you." Then she faced Lyon. "Let's take a walk."

Grateful that he no longer had to watch the pair fight, Lyon nodded. "Sure thing."

"Lyon," Natsu suddenly called out to him, surprising both him and Lucy. When Lyon turned to look at him, Natsu said, "Promise me you'll keep Lucy safe, alright? She gets into a lot of trouble on her own."

Lyon withheld the urge to snort at his honest words, for the idea of Lucy not being able to protect herself was somewhat laughable to him. From what he had just been able to gather from what he'd overheard, the woman had essentially spent an entire year on her own as well, and had been just fine. But instead of saying any of that, Lyon just nodded. "We'll watch each other's backs."

"Thanks, man."

With that, Lyon and Lucy departed, with Natsu and Happy left staring dejectedly in their wake.

* * *

Lyon and Lucy walked along the canal for a while in silence, neither sure about what to say to each other after that embarrassing scene. Finally, after they'd walked quite a while, Lucy looked over at Lyon and smiled sheepishly. "I'm sorry you had to see that, Lyon."

"It's fine," he replied with a shake of his head. Though the truth was that he was relieved that it was over, and that Natsu hadn't pressed them about why it was _Lyon_ that Lucy was going on a job with. Lyon had witnessed some of the tension between the two when they came to Lamia Scale for Wendy, and he had wondered about it then. He'd shrugged it off at the time, since it really wasn't any of his business. Now, though, it seemed that it was due to something a little more severe than a simple argument.

In light of all that, it was extremely clear to the ice mage now that Lucy really did need this getaway just as much as he himself did. Which was somewhat reassuring, to know that he wasn't all alone in this.

Lucy swallowed thickly, and let the matter drop. To Lyon's immense relief, she then asked, "So where do you want to meet up tomorrow? I'm open to suggestions."

Lyon considered it for a moment. "How about we meet on the train? If I took the train from Lamia Scale to Larkspur, it would pass through Magnolia anyway. Even if we're not on the same train, though, we can meet up at the Larkspur station."

With a smile, Lucy nodded. "Sounds good to me. Do you know which train you'll be taking?"

"No. Should we head over to the station and purchase our tickets together? That way we can be sure of being on the same train." The offer was out of Lyon's mouth before he knew it was even open.

Lucy practically beamed at him, her entire countenance lighting up. It was a stark contrast to how she'd behaved with Natsu, and it felt good for Lyon to see her shaking off the effects of that unpleasant confrontation.

"Sounds good to me," she agreed. Then she paused, red darkening her cheeks slightly. "Um… afterward… can you help me with picking out my gear, after all? I know what to look for, generally speaking, but I'm not entirely positive that I know which stuff is high quality or not. My childhood memories are probably not super reliable on this topic, to be honest. And I would really appreciate your input."

"Yeah," Lyon said, though he knew it would drastically shorten the amount of time he would have to prepare himself, what with the train ride home he still needed to take. For some reason, though, he didn't think that either one of them wanted to be alone at the moment. And he was willing to roll with that instinct for the time being.

He was certain they'd get sick of each other's company by the time this job was over, but for now he was content to spend this casual time with Lucy.


	5. Getting Underway

_Cover by Kimbeekitty, and posted with permission._

* * *

 **Getting Underway**

* * *

Lucy dragged herself out of bed far too early for her taste. Grabbing her clothes, she stumbled her way into the bathroom for a hot shower. Normally she preferred bathing at night, but she'd been so exhausted from packing for the trip and from the prior day's events that she'd just collapsed before she could get around to it. The hot water felt heavenly, and served to wake her up more fully.

She took her time getting ready, as her train wasn't scheduled to arrive for at least three more hours. The only reason she'd gotten up so early was because she didn't want to rush if she'd forgotten something important, and so that she could eat breakfast beforehand. She hoped that Lyon had gotten enough sleep, though she supposed he could nap on the train before it arrived in Magnolia. Which was what she fully intended to do herself, once all of her stuff was stowed. After all, even after she was boarded it would still take a good portion of the day to reach their destination.

The plan – which they'd hashed out over purchasing Lucy's gear – was to disembark, find a hotel for the night and gather more information about their destination, as well as see about what was available in terms of transportation to their client's village. Lucy did not relish the idea of a long uphill hike to it, but she knew that it was a distinct possibility given the remoteness. Hopefully the trail wouldn't be too steep, if it came to that. …On second thought, she decided, that would make the trail even longer.

She poked her stomach experimentally. Over the past year, despite lacking the exercise that mage jobs afforded, Lucy had actually gained more muscle definition thanks to the rigorous training her spirits had put her through. It was her arms that had improved most notably, due to Sagittarius teaching her the use of a genuine longbow before they attempted the one that came with his star dress. Still, she had developed her leg muscles for fighting in the Leo star dress as well. Lucy just wasn't sure how well that would serve her, since they might be different than the ones she used for long periods of walking and hiking.

These were things she probably should have considered long before now, she knew. Hopefully it would be fine, but Lucy was prone to worrying all the same.

For all of her travels prior to joining Fairy Tail, and during her year as a journalist, Lucy did not much _like_ the walking part that came with traveling. Or the part that came with climbing up mountains. Lucy wasn't much of an outdoors person in general, honestly. She liked it well enough in theory, but she also liked having a warm bed to sleep in every night, and a hot bath in which to soak away all her aches and pains and worries.

And here she was, willingly going on a job of indeterminate length to search a mountainside for… for something. They still didn't even know what they were searching _for!_

Lucy hoped it wasn't like the time her team faced a wyvern for that one plant. That had been a horrible experience all around. But hopefully Lyon would be a more courteous partner, and she wouldn't end up with an abominable cold this time.

Probably a pipe dream. After all, the man had grown up with the same teacher as Gray (and had spent three years in an insane bid to melt a demon of Zeref, and had later jumped over a cliff with a bomb during their fights with the Oracion Seis) so the chances were honestly pretty slim overall. But she could hope, couldn't she?

The soft patter on her window alerted her to the fact that it had started raining during her musings. Calm spread throughout Lucy. Something about the rain was always lulling to her. Even when it shot into the ground like so much buckshot, she still loved it. The perfect excuse to stay indoors, warm under the covers with a good book? She'd take it every time. It was a luxury that making her own schedule as a mage had afforded her, and she'd missed it.

But for now, she couldn't afford to do that this time either. She had obligations to keep and a train to catch!

Downing her hot coffee in several scalding gulps, she grabbed her pack and bag with her change of clothes and slung them over her shoulders. She nearly groaned from the weight. This was not going to be fun lugging around a mountainside, but it would more than likely keep her alive so she was just going to have to deal with it. Lucy was glad that they weren't expecting much or any snow – that would be excruciating.

The bag with her winter clothing and thermal underclothes was mostly so that she didn't have to wear them in her apartment or on the train, and subsequently expire from the heat. Summer in thermal gear was not fun by any stretch of the imagination. But where they were going, they were necessary, so packed they had to be.

Once she was ready to go, Lucy exited her apartment with her poles under her arm and pack strapped securely to her. She'd pick up breakfast at the station's small store. It wouldn't be the first time, and it saved her having to do dishes or having them stink up her apartment while she was gone. Well… with the exception of her coffee cup, anyway. Which she'd rinsed thoroughly so hopefully that wouldn't be a problem.

She froze, suddenly struggling to recall if she'd put her garbage out. Then a moment later, she heaved a sigh of relief once she remembered that she had done so the night before – anticipating that she'd forget it in the morning.

Belatedly, she wondered if she should make a quick detour to the guild to make sure someone stopped by her apartment while she was gone, to make sure she hadn't forgotten some piece of garbage somewhere. Then Lucy shook off the idea. She didn't relish having a repeat of her conversation the day before, and besides she wasn't planning on being gone that long, no matter what she'd said to Natsu. After all, they couldn't carry that many supplies up with them without getting a pack animal to help them carry it all. Which, now that she thought about it, was actually a good idea. Maybe she'd bring that up to Lyon and they could discuss the pros and cons.

At the bottom of the stairs, she slipped a packet full of next month's rent money (having a steady, mostly non-dangerous job for a year had done _wonders_ for her financial situation) and a note stating her intended absence into her landlady's mail slot. That was notice enough, she felt. And this way, if the job took longer than intended, then she wouldn't come back to find all of her stuff auctioned off.

Finally, Lucy could delay no longer, and had to brave the rain to get to the train station. And she was already sweating from the sweltering, humid heat inside the apartment building's foyer. May as well get just as wet outside and cool down.

With that thought, she pushed open the door and exited the apartment, booking it to the train station as best she could with the cumbersome equipment strapped onto her.

* * *

Lyon was jolted upright and into wakefulness by a loud noise accompanied by hushed swearing. Blearily, he glanced around the compartment. He relaxed when he made out Lucy, storing her gear in the overhead bins. "Hello," she greeted him with a sheepish smile, sliding into the seat across from him. "Sorry I woke you. I was trying to be quiet, but the gear wouldn't cooperate with me."

He smiled tiredly back at her. "That's fine." Stretching out his muscles, he was unable to suppress a yawn. "Glad we made the same train after all."

Lucy nodded. "You can go back to sleep," she suggested. "I have a few ideas about our job, but they can honestly wait until later." Suppressing a yawn of her own, she then added, "I think I might need some more shut-eye, myself."

"That sounds good," he replied, his eyes already halfway closed. But then something caught his eye, and he peered at Lucy curiously. "Is your hair wet?" he asked, confused.

"It was raining in Magnolia," she stated, leaning her head against the window and closing her eyes. A moment later, a soft snore wafted from her mouth.

That certainly was fast. Lyon felt a smile pulling at his lips. He unlatched his cape, and draped it over the slumbering celestial mage.

He was too warm anyway, he reasoned.

* * *

When next Lyon awoke, Lucy was already alert, but still wrapped up in his cape. Red suffused her cheeks when she noticed his curious stare. "It was comfortable," she justified herself.

She made no move to return it.

Which suited Lyon fine, as he was in no hurry to reclaim it.

He turned his gaze out the window, as Lucy had earlier. They had left the general area around Magnolia some time ago, the terrain steadily rising all around the train tracks. They were well into the foothills that surrounded their destination. It would only take another hour or two for them to reach their destination, Lyon realized with a start. Their impromptu nap had lasted much longer than either of them had intended.

"Do you know what hotel we're checking into?" Lucy broke the silence by asking.

Lyon shook his head and glanced at her. She still faced the window. "I've never been to Larkspur before. Shouldn't be too hard to find one with vacancies, though. It's a winter town, and it's the off season."

She nodded, shifting slightly to face him now. "I was thinking this morning, before I boarded the train… We still don't know exactly what it is we're looking for, right? Or how long it might take?" At his answering nod, Lucy continued, "It might be a good idea for us to hire a pack horse, don't you think? We might have to bring a decent amount of food and water with us. I don't know about you, but if we can't find this thing quickly, then I don't want to be stuck foraging on the mountainside." Not to mention the fact that she was beyond grouchy whenever she missed her morning coffee.

"We did agree to pack a certain amount of food, though," Lyon reminded her. "And we do have the materials to make tents and a campsite. We can always return to the client's village when we run out of supplies."

Lucy sighed. "I guess you're right. I just like being prepared, is all."

He hesitated and rethought his position once he saw her crestfallen expression. "Actually, on second thought, you might be right. Being over prepared is better than getting blindsided, right?"

That perked her up. "Yeah!" she replied. "Thanks to my time at Fairy Tail, I've learned that anything that _can_ go wrong, inevitably _will_. And then so will several more things you didn't think were possible."

Lyon laughed, and Lucy laughed with him. "I can believe that!" he told her with a grin. "I've seen it firsthand!"

"Yup, we're pretty crazy." Lucy shrugged off his cape, and then held it out to him. "Thanks for this, by the way."

Taking it back from her, Lyon waved off her gratitude. "No need to thank me. _I_ should be the one thanking you, actually." At her questioning look, he averted his gaze briefly in embarrassment. "I think I needed the distraction of all this for… a while now. Not just because of Juvia. Things have been hectic at the guild lately, with all the ongoing preparations for Sherry and Ren's wedding, Wendy going back to Fairy Tail… It's good to be on a job. It's so much more…" He frowned, unable to come up with the right word to describe it.

"Straight-forward?" Lucy supplied with a wry twist of her lips.

"That's it."

"I completely get that. It's good to have something… uncomplicated to work on." Her smile was an easy one, a reassuring thing that brought Lyon great comfort, and he couldn't help returning it.

As he had predicted, it wasn't long until they pulled into Larkspur's station. Lyon and Lucy helped each other get their packs and gear out of the storage, and exited the train. When they stepped onto the platform, Lucy repressed a shudder at the chill air hitting her, her breath coming out in white clouds. Now she wished she'd kicked Lyon out of the compartment so she could change into her warmer clothing.

Lyon was perturbed by the chill in the air, and by the gray clouds he could see beyond the shelter of the platform. They blanketed the sky, and the air tasted like winter in his lungs – too much like his childhood home in Iceberg.

It was supposed to be cooler this high up, certainly. They were at twelve hundred meters, after all. But it should not be _this_ cold. Not at _this_ time of the year.

Lucy shivered in earnest once they left the train station proper and the windbreak it provided. "Let's find a hotel quickly!" she suggested, picking up the pace to coax some warmth into her limbs from the exertion. She slowed down a little as Lyon unclasped his cape again and once more passed it to her. Sliding it up under her pack strapped to her back with a little help from Lyon in pulling it through the arm holes, Lucy was soon cocooned in its meager warmth. Shooting him a grin, she picked up the pace again. "Thanks! Now let's get warm before I lose my toes."

Lyon couldn't help but admire her positivity when confronting the seriousness of frostbite. Which was certainly impending for her if she continued to wear her open-toed sandals out in this cold for much longer.

After checking out three places in the vicinity of the train station, the pair finally found a hotel that agreed with both their wallets and their mutual aversion to bedbugs. To reduce costs, they booked a single room with two beds. Although Lucy was not averse to sharing a bed (her team having done that a great many times on jobs in the past), she had a feeling that Lyon wouldn't be interested in the idea. Which was too bad, as they could have saved a good amount of money that way.

The first order of business, once they entered their room, was for Lucy to hurriedly scramble out of her pack and Lyon's cape, dropping both unceremoniously onto the bed. Whereupon she scurried to the bathroom, her bag of warm clothing tight within her grasp and her toes bright red from the cold.

When she emerged, Lucy looked and felt vastly more comfortable than she had previously. Lyon had already repossessed his cape, she noticed, and she smiled at him. "Thanks for letting me borrow your cape again, Lyon. You're a lifesaver."

"No problem," he replied, as he finished folding the article of clothing and placed it on the dresser. He sat down on the bed Lucy hadn't claimed with her gear, and she went to hers. "What should we do first?" Lyon asked. "Should we secure transportation or eat first?"

A loud rumble from Lucy's stomach was answer enough. Her face began to slowly redden with her ensuing mortification.

"Lunch it is," Lyon said with a mischievous smirk.

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Lucy mumbled. Digging through her clothing bag once more, she took out her winter coat, a red puffy thing that would more than ward off the chill. Slipping it on, she also took out a green beanie, and pulled it down over the tips of her ears – which were still pretty red. Finally, she put her hiking boots on, taking a few minutes to lace them up.

The benefit of being an ice make mage was that Lyon did not have to dress any more warmly than he presently was in order to feel perfectly comfortable in the current weather. Well, that and being from the perpetually frozen country of Iceberg helped a lot. Coming to Fiore had been a great shock to his system, he recalled. He suddenly wondered how Gray had handled it, the unbidden thought catching him off guard. He'd honestly never given a concern before as to how his foster brother had fared in his life post-Ur. Any thoughts Lyon had spared for him prior to meeting him once again on Galuna Island had been devoted to the agony he would unleash on the man for killing his dream and inflicting so much pain and suffering on him. After that… well, Lyon had been extremely busy trying to settle into his new life as a guild mage, and then in the search for the vanished Tenrou Island. But it had been over a year since Fairy Tail's return and yet…

Time slipped away so fast.

But unlike with Ur, and Juvia, Lyon felt that he could still form a closer, stronger bond with Gray. He wanted to. Their present friendship was hard-won, and had survived a great deal already. It could survive a little awkwardness over Lyon's crush on Juvia.

"Okay!" Lucy announced brightly, snapping Lyon out of his thoughts. "Let's get going!"

Lyon smiled at her, suddenly and immensely grateful to have her and her mostly cheery disposition around to help keep him from brooding. Something he admittedly did a great deal of. Standing up, he agreed, "Yes, let's go find some food."


	6. The Passage Of Time

_Cover by Kimbeekitty, and posted with permission._

Hey there folks, bit of an important announcement here. After this chapter, this fic is going on a temporary hiatus. I need to get working on my CoLu week fics, and also I came up with a really big thing that I want to work into this fic, but it'll take me a little bit of time to implement, correct continuity errors, and polish. So it's best that I get that done and out of the way so as to not have to repost chapters later on if they get rewritten. Updates will probably resume in August.

I hope you enjoy this new chapter in the meantime!

* * *

 **The Passage Of Time**

* * *

They ended up settling down to eat not too far from where they were staying at the hotel. It was a modest family-oriented restaurant, nothing fancy but definitely still more crowded than they had expected at this hour. Lucy couldn't help but smile and wave at the little kid in the booth behind Lyon, the child giggling and retreating to loudly exclaim to his parents about the lady that had waved at him. Lyon, for his part, sighed in relief that the kid had stopped kicking the back of his seat.

"Not a fan of kids, I take it?" Lucy asked him, picking up her menu.

Lyon let out another sigh, this one weary. "It's not that I don't like them. They're fine. In general." Flashbacks of when Chelia first joined Lamia Scale filled his mind, threatening to render the statement a lie. She'd been… a handful and a half, and that was as mild a description that Lyon could dredge up for the rambunctious girl. "I just don't like having my spine assaulted, that's all."

Giggling, Lucy lifted the menu a little higher in a futile attempt to cover up her mirth. "I have to agree with you there, just a bit. Natsu and I once babysat Asuka – that's Alzack and Bisca's daughter – for an entire afternoon, and let me tell you, that was more exhausting than when we fought a wyvern. And Asuka was still going strong by the time her parents came to get her. I don't know how in the world they managed to do that all on their own for five years. Let alone how they survived the terrible twos." Lucy shuddered. "I don't even want to imagine what those must have been like."

"I think the biggest mistake Lamia Scale ever made was in letting the Trimens babysit Chelia for an afternoon," Lyon confessed, starting to smile as well. "She came back with… ideas. Not good ones." And, somehow, a rampant crush on Lyon. To this day, he still wasn't sure just what could have possibly happened on that playdate to get that outcome, but now he was (unfortunately) stuck with it until her affections decided to move on. Admittedly, with Wendy in the guild it had been a quiet year for Lyon on that front. But with her return to Fairy Tail, and Sherry's impending move to Blue Pegasus, Chelia had become even lonelier – and therefore _clingier_ – than normal. Gods, he missed Wendy being at Lamia Scale.

Lucy flinched at the mere thought of the consequences that could arise out of letting a child spend an entire afternoon with the three playboys extraordinaire, let alone the circumstances that would even lead to such an occurrence. "Wow. I gotta ask… how did that even happen?"

"Sherry needed someone to babysit her while she went shopping, and she wanted Chelia and Ren to bond," he explained. "It made logical sense at the time, but in hindsight it was a terrible decision." In so, so many ways.

"I can imagine!" Lucy laughed, and the sound of it drew a chuckle out of Lyon as well.

"Welcome!" greeted the waiter as he approached the table, drawing the pair out of their conversation. "Are you ready for me to take your orders?"

"Not yet," admitted Lucy, crimson spreading across her nose and lifting her menu even higher in order to avoid eye-contact with the waiter. "We need a few more minutes." Much to her chagrin, they'd spent too long talking, and not enough time in actually looking over the menu.

"Not a problem!" the waiter replied. "Can I get your drink orders while you decide?"

After a split-second of hesitation, Lucy said, "Just water for me, thanks." Coffee ran through her veins, she was sure, but she needed to be hydrated in order to be prepared for all of the climbing she was about to do the next day. And she also wanted to get a decent amount of sleep that night, too. She'd stock her blood with caffeine in the morning.

"Same here," Lyon stated.

"Got it. I'll be back with those shortly."

As soon as he left, Lucy eyed the menu in earnest, lowering it to a more respectable distance from her face. "We need a lot of calories for the cold and for hiking, right?"

Lyon nodded, his own gaze now fixed to the laminated menu. "That's right. The effort of keeping our bodies warm burns through fat reserves like nothing else, and the strenuous exercise will also exacerbate that reaction. I'm surprised that you know that, though."

"Well, like I told you before, even though I lack a lot of firsthand experience, I'm not a _complete_ novice at this."

It was Lyon's turn to flush a little in embarrassment. "Sorry, I should have remembered that you'd been mountain climbing before." How had he forgotten that she'd told him that just the day prior?

"It's no biggie," she told him. "You're still the more experienced of us two at the end of the day. We should make sure to get enough calorie-packed snacks to take with us, huh?"

"We can do that right after lunch," Lyon agreed, thankful that she wasn't too upset with his blunder.

Lucy had actually already forgotten about it, her mind now occupied by what she should eat. Something high protein, definitely, with lots of fats and carbs on the side… Basically something that would have Capricorn steaming over how much she was "wrecking her diet." Honestly, she wasn't sure what the old goat and Happy had against her weight. Lucy's weight was well within acceptable parameters for her height and body type. Most of her weight was in her breasts, anyway – not her belly. Most people considered that a good thing, even a desirable trait. Besides which, she'd never been one to really consider dieting seriously anyway. She needed her calories just to keep up with her team! Honestly, nothing burned through the weight faster than a mission with those insane people. Magic and stress ate through a good deal of calories too, so Capricorn's insistence on a diet really, really perplexed her. But even though she was confident about being in the right over this issue, she would take the excuse to down as much good food as she could.

When the waiter returned with their drinks, the pair both made sure to thank him when they sent him off with their orders. It was rather pleasant to have meals with someone so courteous as Lyon could be, Lucy mused. A far cry from her team's rambunctious… enthusiasm, or from the entitled guests at her father's dinner parties who couldn't be bothered to utter a single thank you or please to save their lives – no matter how hard the servants worked on their behalf. It had set Lucy's teeth to grinding on more than one occasion.

Lucy loved her team, and her father, but both had their faults and one of the things Lucy had had to learn over the course of her year away from Fairy Tail was to stop making excuses for their bad behavior. They were all adults now. It was high time they acted like it, and learned how to be a little courteous. Especially with Erza now in charge of the entire guild's welfare and the possibility of war looming on the horizon. With the tumultuous times in store for them, a little goodwill would go a long way.

"You look like you're deep in thought," Lyon commented mildly, curiosity getting the better of him. Normally he would be content in the quiet, but a shadow of… _something_ passing over Lucy's face prompted him to break the peace.

"Huh?" she asked, blinking rapidly as her gaze refocused on the man sitting across from her. "Oh," she muttered half a beat later, a little embarrassed to be caught in her daydreams. "It's nothing much. Just reflecting on the past year, is all."

He nodded in understanding. Suddenly, he asked, "Does it bother you, leaving your team behind like this?" The argument he'd witnessed the day before was still fresh on his mind. It clashed so hard with what he'd known and seen before with Natsu and Lucy that it was difficult to banish.

Lucy raised an eyebrow at him. "That's an unusual question from you. Why do you ask?" In all the time that she had known Lyon, she had never pegged him for the prying type. But then again… she hardly knew him at all, didn't she? Maybe it was time for her to do some growing of her own, and look a little harder at the people she thought she knew. They had certainly surprised her before, she thought with sorrow heavy in her heart.

The man shrugged slightly. He wasn't entirely certain why he'd asked about her team, if he were being honest with himself. Or why the prior day's argument had come immediately to mind. There was just something… incredibly _lonely_ about Lucy at the moment. Lost, too, maybe. And Lyon was all too familiar with those particular emotions.

"I guess it bothers me a little," Lucy finally responded, her eyes sliding to the window, watching the people outside walking past bundled up tightly in their coats. "Or more than a little. I mean… It's hard, sometimes. To be around them. You know?"

"You did look a bit… tense with Erza two days ago," Lyon admitted. "And then there was your argument yesterday with Natsu…"

She sighed, and returned her warm eyes to his icy ones. "The rhythm we had… it used to be amazing. We were all perfectly in sync with each other. We didn't even need to fully plan out our moves with each other, or call out when we needed help, or to tag team a bad guy, or…" Her voice dropped as she continued, becoming quieter and quieter with each thing she listed off. Then her voice faded entirely, deep sorrow etched across her face. "We all lost a lot when Tartaros attacked." Her fingers curled around her glass of water, the beads of moisture gathering on the cool glass now trickling down the back of her hands, over her Fairy Tail guild emblem. "But that year took more from us than the demons did, I think." One fingernail, trimmed so as not to get destroyed in the course of mage work, tapped pensively against the glass she still gripped. "I just don't… know how to be around them anymore. They're different than they were a year ago. And more importantly… so am I. We're going to have to learn to deal with that."

She finally released the glass, taking her napkin and wiping her hands free of the gathered moisture self-consciously. "Sorry for unloading on you like that, all of a sudden." Her mouth twisted a little, and she let out a self-deprecating laugh. "I spent too much time in my own head last year – I need to relearn how to talk to people again!"

"No, I asked," he told her. "Thank you for telling me."

Lyon's heart went out to her, for the troubles with her team which for all intents and purposes was her family, but also for the hollowness in her last statement. Lucy had been a reporter. Talking to people was always something that she'd done well. But Lyon understood what she hadn't said, as well. That although her job had consisted of a great deal of socializing and people-oriented skills, Lucy hadn't really had anyone to talk to about her troubles, to lean on for support. He had assumed that her spirits would have filled that void, that she had never really been alone the entire year. Likely, the majority of her guild believed that as well, but perhaps he and they had all assumed incorrectly. Was Lucy the type to bear her painful things in silence, all alone without leaning on a single soul?

Not even _Lyon_ had done _that_. He'd searched out other people who hurt the same way he did over Deliora. People who left their lives to join him on Galuna Island for the entire three years while he put his plans into motion. Although they had been isolated from the world at large for that period of time, Lyon had never once felt alone. His dream had crumbled, but there were still people at his side. Even after Ur's demise, he had adults that had taken him in, helped him get to where he wanted to be. Friends that he could rely on.

But the same couldn't be said for Lucy.

Lucy was a lot braver than she gave herself credit for.

"Now who's the pensive one?" Lucy teased him, and Lyon laughed lightly at being caught wrapped up in his thoughts.

"You've got me there," he replied. Emboldened by how readily she'd shared with him, he felt compelled to add, "I was thinking about when I was on Galuna Island with my friends."

Lucy laughed brightly. "Oh, yeah, that's right! How long were you guys there, again?"

"Three years." It had passed in a flash, though. A solid goal and friends to work beside had made it seem hardly long at all.

"Actually, now that we're on that topic… There's been something I've been meaning to ask you for a long time."

"Go for it," Lyon urged, in a sharing mood, and curious about what she wanted to know.

" _How_ in the world did you convince all those people to go along with your plan?" Lucy asked him, incredulity lacing her voice. "I can barely convince a shopkeeper to give me a discount," she continued, gesturing with one hand towards herself, and then at him, "and here's you – who managed to convince scores of people that it was a good idea to move to a tropical island with you out in the middle of nowhere and defrost the demon that had ruined everyone's lives. Seriously, how did you manage that? When you were…"

"Fifteen," he admitted. "Took a little time to get it all together, though."

She practically choked at that. "Fifteen?! Seriously?! What kind of charisma does something like that even require, and how can _I_ get some of it?"

Lyon couldn't help but laugh at the way she said it. When she put it like that, it did seem a little ridiculous. "It wasn't particularly difficult, it just took a lot of time. You have to remember that I'd been trying to convince people that this was a good idea for at least five years. It wasn't until I met Yuka, and Toby, and Sherry that anyone actually started listening seriously to my plans. And then I had to convince them that I was capable of accomplishing any of it. Not to mention the amount of effort and coordination it took to haul Deliora to the island in the first place." His smile fell, but in thoughtfulness. "In hindsight, it was a good thing that Gray tried to stop me, and that Ur had managed to kill it after all. That monster, if it had been as strong as it was in my childhood… I wouldn't have stood a chance against it. I know that now. Gray and the rest of you… you were trying to save all of our lives."

Frantically waving her hand back and forth in denial, a blush crept up Lucy's neck. "No! No, we should apologize for destroying your dream! …Again. That was technically the second time, wasn't it? I mean… you deserved a pummeling for trying to kill the island villagers, but other than that I can see where you were coming from. Your heart was in the right place on that part, if nothing else. You just wanted to erase the chance that Deliora would ever do something like this again, right?"

With a sigh, Lyon shook his head. "No. I was in it purely for myself. Whatever justifications I may have had, it doesn't really change the fact that I selfishly wanted to hold onto my dream, even if it meant that my potential failure would result in the unleashing of a demon that had already claimed thousands of lives. And as for my actions with the village… They may have been demons, but they were nothing like Deliora. I really don't know what was going through my head at that point. That was beyond reprehensible of me to order."

Lucy laid a hand atop his. "You weren't thinking straight. You were there to kill a demon, remember? That the island you chose was also occupied with demons was an unfortunate coincidence. And you've paid for your actions, right? Gray beat you pretty soundly, as I recall."

He nodded, unable to quite meet her gaze and all too aware of her fingers laid atop his own. They were burning hot against his cool skin and seemed to take up a vastly larger portion of his attention than they rightly should. "I actually went back. To Galuna Island. After you all… on Tenrou…" He trailed off for a second, and then cleared his throat. "I went back, a year or two later. Apologized properly to them for what I did."

"And?" Lucy prompted, her eyebrows raised high in amusement.

"And those are the most cheerful demons I've ever seen," Lyon confessed, still flabbergasted even after all this time. "The most cheerful people I've ever seen in general, to be honest. I would have thought that there was something in the water, but I lived there for three years and I'm pretty sure _I'm_ not that chipper." Then he shrugged slightly. "Toby, maybe. But not me."

Lucy giggled in response, well remembering the strange group of villagers. "They are definitely… something, that's for sure. Their mayor, in particular. I'm still finding it hard to believe that you never once investigated them in all that time you were there. Didn't you need supplies, or something?"

"We had a ship we used to ferry to the mainland for anything we needed," Lyon explained. "And there was just… no need to seek them out. They seemed pretty content to ignore us, so we ignored them. And besides… there was always the chance that they'd seek out a magical guild to oust us if they found out what we were trying to do."

A long, loud laugh burst out of Lucy. So great was her mirth, that she released Lyon's hand in order to hold her sides. "Joke's on you, they sent a request anyway!" Although that did bring up some interesting questions about how, precisely, they'd managed to do that without attracting an insane amount of attention, but that was probably a rabbit hole best left unexplored.

"Maybe a fifteen year old isn't so good at making these sorts of plans," admitted Lyon.

"Probably not," Lucy agreed.

The waiter returned with their food before Lyon could say anything further on the topic. Watching Lucy immediately tuck in was a bit of a spectacle for him. She hadn't exactly been delicate at the coffeeshop, either, now that he thought about it. Wasn't she supposed to have been nobility, or something? Lyon would have assumed that an upper class girl would be a little more… dainty with food.

Noticing that Lyon had yet to begin eating, Lucy glanced at him with concern. "Something wrong with your food, Lyon? You're not eating."

Startled by the question, Lyon shook off his wandering thoughts. "No, it's nothing." He began to eat as well, intent on packing in a good number of calories for the journey ahead of them.

Maybe Lucy had picked up her eating habits from her teammates. Either way, it was none of his business.


End file.
